I see all the old controversial topics on the "forget cricket" section are all gone. Well, here's a new one to chew on until the cricket starts up again.

I would like you to consider signing the petition at the bottom of the post.

Many of you probably don't know Salauddin Quader Chowdhury. He is an MP and has been nominated as Bangaldesh's candidate to be Sec General of the OIC. Now SAKA, as he is popularly called, has a chequered past (and probably present). A member of a well established Mulsim political family, he unfortunately was a big time collaborator in the 1971 independence war. Because of his personal involvement with death squads, many consider him a war criminal.

It is sad that successive AL (yes, AL) and BNP govts have done little to stop war criminals from walking around pretending the 1971 genocide never happened. SAKA became a mafia boss (in vogue with many AL and BNP MPs and ministers, I am sure you are aware of many of them), has been involved with murder cases, and is a man people are afraid to mess with.

The issue is, although he has never been tried of war crimes (no one has for 1971), he does have a tarnished reputation. Should he be nominated as BD representative to such high office? Surely they could have found some other mafia boss to do the job, did they have to pick a war criminal as well?

Some people argue about the politics of the OIC and their role in 1971 (slient as the genocide went on), others argue that this is motivated by AL, etc. None of those things are the real issue here.

Because we never formally persecuted 1971 war criminals (other than butchering random people, many completely innocent, in the aftermath of 1971), because neither Pakistan nor the collaborators ever felt the need to apologize or were forced to pay, we fast forward 30 years to find a shockingly different state of affairs. People think the 1971 war was some kind of AL conspiracy and any thought of it should be avoided like the plague. And so the war criminals have all perservered, and resurface in very respectable positions in society and government. And no one is shocked, no one is outraged, because to do so you have to be an AL person and who cares about history anyways?

Just like I am in a minority here in the US when I protest the Patriot Act and bombing Iraq, I would be in the minority in Bangladesh for speaking my conscience. The world is run by insane people and everything is upside down.

Sorry for the very long post. Again, please read the petition below and sign it - it will be forwarded to Daily Star and Prothom Alo by its authors. While some of you will surely read this in terms of AL vs BNP, I am hoping at least some others will consider the need to say "no", no matter whatever your political inclinations.